Thanks to his previous work against pedophiles, the Florida congressman who sent possibly inappropriate emails to a teenager had little choice but to resign. Now the GOP has yet another vulnerable seat to defend

One of the most troubling parts of the emerging scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley, is this: he chaired the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.

Foley carved out a role for himself as a congressional leader on the issue of exploited children, and is credited with authoring important sections of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 which President Bush signed into law this summer.

He worked with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children whose website has pictures of him presenting awards to law enforcement officers and children who survived and or helped bring child predators to justice.

It would be a fascinating psychological study to try and understand how Foley could be both sending such emails to high schoolers while at the same time fighting against child predators. He is like the firefighter who turns out to also be an arsonist.

Rep. Foley is currently sitting on a $2.8 million war chest , much of it left over from a dashed US Senate bid. Typically, that money might go to the NRCC's campaign coffers, to help elect other Republicans.

But if Rep. Foley really wants to show some contrition, he should donate it all to the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Actually it looks like he was just showing the same kind of worker curiousity any boss shows for his underlings. Taken out of context the statements are easily twisted. However he maybe just the kind of boss who sends you a card on your birthday, has a compnay scrapbook and such. My guess is that he stepped down so quickly becuase he is single and it could be twisted to be even uglier.

Actually it looks like he was just showing the same kind of worker curiousity any boss shows for his underlings. Taken out of context the statements are easily twisted. However he maybe just the kind of boss who sends you a card on your birthday, has a compnay scrapbook and such. My guess is that he stepped down so quickly becuase he is single and it could be twisted to be even uglier.

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I don't think telling a sixteen year old that you would like to take off his shirt and shorts count as "curiosity". Not where I come from, at least.

Interesting I saw nothing of that in either link you posted. In fact i have seen only excerpts from the e-mails. Either you have information you are withholding or it is information you are fabricating.

Interesting I saw nothing of that in either link you posted. In fact i have seen only excerpts from the e-mails. Either you have information you are withholding or it is information you are fabricating.

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Or maybe it is information being shown ad nauseum on the news as released by the Ethics Committee going over the IMs of the former Republican.

Officially, the matter is now in the hands of a House ethics panel charged with deciding whether there should be an investigation. But the lurid details are already being heavily parsed on television and the Internet.

In one message reported by ABC, Foley reportedly inquired of one page, "Do I make you a little horny?" In another message, he asked a page if he were wearing boxers and then urged him to "strip down and get relaxed."

"Foley's resignation brings a new volatility to this fall's midterm campaigns, in which Republicans are trying to fight off a Democratic insurgency to reclaim the House majority after 12 years of GOP rule. Democrats need to pick up 15 seats to take control of the chamber, and Foley's heavily Republican district is now a surprise new opportunity for Democrats."

Okay, I give up! Can someone tell me how the senator's email was discovered? I've read several accounts now of this incident, but no one has explained how these emails came into public attention.

Baron Max

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They were apparently published on a website dedicated to tracking sexual predators.

Maybe you read the story Friday morning in The Post. Maybe you heard about it from the other publications and the Web sites that carried the news about five e-mails Foley had sent to a 16-year-old former congressional page. They showed up last Sunday on a Web site dedicated to tracking sexual predators. Wherever you read about it, you probably had the same reaction: This is bad, and there's more coming.

At first, as always, a spokesman for Foley tried to dismiss release of the e-mails as a political smear job. This time, though, the source wasn't the problem; it was the content.

Even if there was nothing illegal about the e-mails between Foley and the page, who now lives in Louisiana, there was everything inappropriate. Foley talked about another boy, whom he described as being in "great shape." Foley asked the 16-year-old boy for a picture. This exchange was the only one in The Post story. As Friday went on, however, there were reports of other e-mails. ABC News confronted Foley about sexually explicit online exchanges, also with underage boys.

By early afternoon, Foley had resigned, saying he was sorry and apologizing to all those whom he had let down. You wonder how someone who surely knows that e-mails are forever believed that he could keep getting away with this.

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It's apparently been going on since 2005.

GOP leaders admit their offices have known for months that a Florida Republican congressman was sending inappropriate e-mails to a boy who had worked as a page in the House of Representatives.

The office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who earlier said he'd learned about the e-mails only last week, acknowledged that aides referred the matter to the authorities last fall. They said they were only told the messages were "over-friendly."

Rep. Thomas Reynolds, who heads the House Republican election effort, said Saturday he told Hastert months ago about concerns that a fellow Republican lawmaker, Rep. Mark Foley, had sent inappropriate messages to a teenage boy.

"Huh?? Where in the fuck did you get that idea??? ..pull it out of your asshole?"

By your standard defense: You were questioning the means by which Foley's homosexual sexual affinity for teens became public. I commented on that, because I can't imagine that you would have made even such a fleeting defense, for instance, of Clinton's improprieties. Party fealty.

I have only accused you of bias, which we all have. It seems to me that you would more readily defend a Republican over a Democrat. That's an unsurprising aside, and not much to get riled up about. Relax.

I have only accused you of bias, which we all have. It seems to me that you would more readily defend a Republican over a Democrat. That's an unsurprising aside, and not much to get riled up about. Relax.

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I don't know where or how you got the idea that I'm staunchly republican, but it's just not so. In fact, if you lined them up with the democratics, I'd use them both, indiscriminately, for target practice!

I've never voted for republicans or democrats simply because of their party affiliation ....I voted for the person, what he stood for, how he conducted himself, etc. I'm also cautious of all politicians, watching for lies and untruths, because I'm convinced that anyone who wants to be a government official should almost automatically be disqualified from holding office!!

But, Hype, I'm still interested in your comments about the issue of "human rights" and why, if we hold those rights true for all people of the world, why you don't advocate invasion to set all the people free? I mean, if you hold those ideals so highly and so broadly, like for the terrorists, then why not for some of the nice people of the world?

"why, if we hold those rights true for all people of the world, why you don't advocate invasion to set all the people free?"

Because it is not feasible, because it would be overwhelmingly resented, and because would foment greater abuses of human rights. If we instead set the best example in setting our own house in order, others will be far more likely to emulate and cooperate with us. Whether they choose to or not gets back to freedom, where force does not intrude. We now return to the topic of the thread.

The Republicans did a masterful job spinning this scandal. But it does help to have a tacit one-party system ruling.